Preserving Unity

When my wife and I arrived in Alaska almost 6 years ago, a main part of the vision of what we wanted to see God do here was to bring unity to the body of Messiah here in the Last Frontier.  We do understand, of course, that standing in the way of this unity are centuries of schisms in the body.  Schisms that are caused by distrust, pride, lust for power and control, finances, politics, doctrinal differences, prejudices and a host of other maladies in the human condition.  While this is a formidable challenge we do understand that overcoming centuries of religious strife and conflict and bringing the body to unity will have to be an act of God.  However, at the same time we also recognize another fact, i.e., that we also have a part to play, a responsibility if you will, to cooperate with God in achieving this unity.

Understand please that unity isn't the same thing as uniformity.  God is not looking to "clone" us or make the body something homogenous that denies the multifaceted cultures and backgrounds we all come from.  It does mean we focus on the things we share in common together as believers and to do what Paul tells us to do in his writings: "Accept one another then as Messiah also accepted us to the glory of God" (Rom. 15:7).

First of all, our rallying point is the Messiah Himself.  Yeshua is our focus, our goal, our reason for being.  Secondly, we rally around the written Scriptures as the infallible and authoritative Word of God, inspired by Him.  We submit out lifestyles to obeying its words because they are the words of the Creator.  Thirdly, we fellowship with other believers, who are our brothers and sisters in the Lord as long as they all hold to the foundational truths of God's Word as pertaining to the person of God and how we have been brought into relationship with Him.  For the body to attain to God's goal for us which, according to Rabbi Shaul (Paul) in his writings to the congregation of Ephesus, is to come "to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Messiah" (Eph. 4:23), we must make up our minds as individual believers to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and the corporate whole of the Body of Messiah to make this unity a reality.

We are not only called upon to strive for and work toward this goal of unity, but also to preserve it as the Spirit of Almighty God works it out in us, through us and for us.  Again from Paul's words to the Ephesians (4:1-3):
"Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

Enough said?  Then together let's do it.
 .